Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 5.66% or 0.390 points to trade at 7.280 at the close. Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) added 5.26% or 0.510 points to end at 10.210 and Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) was up 5.19% or 0.035 points to 0.710 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST), which lost 5.75% or 0.360 points to trade at 5.900 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 4.73% or 0.075 points to end at 1.510 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) shed 3.74% or 0.160 points to 4.120.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 667 to 633 and 345 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.49% to 11.698.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.40% or 5.40 to $1346.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.33% or 0.22 to hit $66.36 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.09 to trade at $70.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.8093, while AUD/JPY fell 0.05% to 88.02.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 88.99.